A U.S. woman was the victim of a robbery that triggered a series of events that left a 24-year-old man dead under confusing circumstances.

The woman was not identified. However, she was confronted about 5:30 p.m. by three armed men when she left an athletic club in Rohrmoser, said police. Nearly $3,000 was taken in the heist, they said.

A short while later, a body, later identified as that of Roy Barrantes Robles, was dumped in a lot in Alajuelita. The body had a bullet in the chest.

The occupants abandoned the car from which the body was dumped a short distance away, and police said it was stolen and matched the description of the vehicle used in the robbery.

The dead man was from San Rafael Abajo de Desamparados, which is just south of Alajuelita

New terrorism law
stresses laundering

The Asamblea Nacional is considering an anti-terrorism measure that is a unified law that is being adopted in many other Central American and Caribbean countries.

In addition to penalties for terrorism, the bill tightens controls over financial transactions and provides stiffer penalties for money laundering.

The bill was proposed by Mario Calderón Castillo, a deputy. The measure is being studied by the Comisión Permanente Especial de Narcotráfico. It covers actions here and also outside the country, mainly of a financial nature.

Money laundering will be punishable with jail terms of four years, more than is provided currently.

The purpose of the model law is to make sure each country makes illegal all the possible terrorist acts, including illegal arms trafficking, the sale of explosives and laundering. The law also covers confiscation of properties used in such crimes.
 

Language student 
dies in Flamingo fall

A Moravian University student studying Spanish in Costa Rica died July 12 after he suffered a fall in Flamingo, according to investigators.

The man was identified as John Paul Krupa, who had recently arrived in Costa Rica. He was identified as being from Bethlehem, Pa., where the university is located.

A spokesperson for the Judicial Investigating Organization said Krupa was in Flamingo on a holiday with family friends who live in Costa Rica when he fell while returning home at night.

The case is being investigated.

Two held in Cartago
for drug investigation

Anti-drug police have arrested two men in Cartago for investigation of drug sales. The men operated out of the Metrópolis Bar, which is adjacent to the well known church ruins of the city.  The men were identified by the last names of Abrahams Rivera and Stewart Quiel.

Agents of the Policía de Control de Drogas said the men were major suppliers of cocaine and crack cocaine. Some 569 grams of a white powder suspected to be cocaine were confiscated in the home of one of the men, agents said.
 

Trinidad official visits

The chancellor of Trinidad and Tobago will be visiting Costa Rica for three days beginning Monday. He is Kwowlson Gift.

While here the chancellor will meet with President Abel Pacheco, his ministers, legislators and officials of the Instituto Interamericano para la Agricultura, said a release from the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto.

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Bad news for those depositors who were expecting a quick end to the Banco Elca situation. The case got more complex Thursday with the arrest of three bank officials.

Held was the long-time bank chief Carlos Alvarado Moya. He was identified as the president, although he is listed as vice president in the bank’s most current filing with the Superintendencia de Entidades Financieras.

The detention was made at his Escazú home at the hands of Ministerio Público investigators. They were expected to seek six months of preventative detention while the investigation continues.

Bank regulators took over the facilities of Corporación Elca S.A. June 29 and froze any disbursements of cash. They said at the time the bank had less liquidity than the law requires. They promised to make a report to depositors in 90 days.

Although Elca held a small share of the nation’s banking market, perhaps less that 2 percent, it held a disproportionate share of accounts owned by foreigners because it actively sought such clients.

Bank salespeople made frequent visits to seminars held for those who were thinking of moving to Costa Rica.  In addition the financial institution held sums in the five figures that foreigners declared to obtain certain forms of residency status here.

The arrests do not show that any of the bank money has been illegally diverted because the allegations of criminality could involve misstatements and fraudulent reports to regulators. But the arrests and the length of the preventative detention suggests that the case will continue for some time.

Just 24 applicants from Costa Rica have been selected to get permanent resident visas from the U. S. government. Results of the diversity visa lottery were announced Thursday.

The lottery awards visas to persons who apply from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. About 100,000 persons are being notified as winners worldwide, although only 55,000 visas will be issued. 

The applicants were selected at random, according to a U.S. State Department release.

The visas have been distributed among six geographic regions, with a maximum of 7 percent available to persons born in any single country, said the department. 

The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act passed by Congress in 1997 stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas be made available for use for people in that area.

Other Central American nationals and their visa winners;  Panama, 17; Nicaragua, 14; Belize, 3; Honduras, 35; and Guatemala, 25.

Nationals of Perú got 2,514 visas, and citizens of Cuba got 674.

HAVANA, Cuba — The top U.S. diplomat in Cuba has asked the island's government to grant exit visas to 1,350 people, mainly medical personnel. 

James Cason, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, accused the Communist government Wednesday of denying visas to Cuban nationals who already have U.S. travel documents.  He says Havana's tight restrictions on travel abroad force 

Cuban President Fidel Castro has criticized U.S. policy on Cuba, saying it encourages illegal immigration. 

The U.S. diplomat also says Washington has issued permanent visas to 20,000 Cubans this year, as part of an agreement between the two nations.  He urged Cuban officials to respect the deal.

SORRENTO, Italy — The International Whaling Commission has decided it is not yet ready to lift a ban on commercial whaling. At the end of a fractious annual meeting, the commission decided further discussion on whale management is needed, before the 18-year ban can be lifted. 

The four-day meeting of the International Whaling Commission held here, was dominated by discussions of a possible lifting of the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. Leading a group of countries that would like to see the ban lifted are Japan, Iceland and Norway.

A difficult session was held on the final day of the meeting, which saw the text of a resolution by the 57-member Commission amended several times. One of the main sticking points was whether a vote on a plan to lift the ban on commercial whaling should take place at next year's meeting. Once the commission decided to drop the provision calling for a vote, the resolution was adopted.

Environmentalists claimed victory after the vote, saying further discussions on whale management was the right way to move forward.

The plan for a limited resumption of commercial whaling, under discussion at the meeting, was drawn up by commission chairman Henrik Fischer of Denmark. It called for a five-year phase-in period, when commercial whaling would be allowed only in coastal waters. It also contained measures to ensure whalers did not exceed quotas.

The United States had backed the proposal, but insisted it had not abandoned its traditional anti-whaling stance.

A number of other Japanese proposals were also rejected, including one to abolish a whale sanctuary in the Antarctic Ocean and another to lift a ban on commercial whaling of minke whales, also in the Antarctic Ocean.

During the meeting, the commission also passed a resolution urging nations to find more humane methods for killing whales. Although it did not ban harpoons, it did say these can cause whales to suffer, and ordered the commission to research different killing methods.

The United States Thursday welcomed the surprise release from prison of Cuban dissident Marta Beatriz Roque, one of 75 opponents of the Fidel Castro government jailed in a widely-criticized political crackdown last year. 

Ms. Roque, an economist, was the only woman among the 75 dissidents sentenced to long jail terms last year, and the United States had made repeated calls for her release on health grounds. 

Serving a 20-year prison term, she is understood to have been suffering from heart problems and diabetes.

Her release, confirmed by family members in Havana, was welcomed by State Department spokesman Steven Pike, who said the 59-year-old Ms. Roque should never have been imprisoned in the first place.

"Like many other prisoners of conscience held in Castro's Gulag, she suffered from inadequate medical care in prison," he said. "Typically, the Castro government has once again released an activist only when her deteriorating health became an inconvenience."

She is the seventh of the dissidents jailed in last year's crackdown to be released for health reasons in the last few months.

However, spokesman Pike said Cuban authorities have escalated harsh treatment of other prisoners including physician Oscar Elias Biscet, about whom the State Department issued a statement of concern.

The statement said Dr. Biscet, an advocate of non-violent resistance to the Communist government serving a 25-year-sentence, had been put in solitary confinement.

It said authorities had barred his wife from bringing him supplementary food and medicine that other prisoners depend on, and had knowingly done this while Dr. Biscet's health has deteriorated markedly.

Spokesman Pike said the United States repeats its call on the Cuban government to release all political prisoners immediately, and to allow humanitarian organizations to monitor prison conditions.

MEXICO CITY, México — The city’s human rights commission has criticized an investigation into the death of a leading rights activist as seriously flawed. 

The commission president Emilio Alvarez asked officials Wednesday to reopen the case, saying it was not confident in the findings that Digna Ochoa committed suicide.  In a report, the group cited errors, irregularities and missing evidence in the probe of Ms. Ochoa death. The human rights activist

Ms. Ochoa's family says she was murdered after receiving death threats for her investigations into alleged abuse by Mexico's army and police. 

Wednesday, Mexico City's Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promised his office would consider reopening the case, saying the city has nothing to hide.  But the city's Attorney General Bernard Batiz says Mexican courts have already ruled that the case is closed.